Platform for providing life-cycle product support services

ABSTRACT

A service center receives a request for posting a message from a mobile device over a network, the request identifying a first discussion forum and a second discussion forum, the message pertaining to a product previously registered with the service center by a user. The message is transmitted to a first server hosting the first discussion forum over the network, together with first credentials retrieved from a database associated with the service center. The first credentials are to allow the first discussion forum to authenticate the user in order to post the message on the first discussion forum. The message is also transmitted to a second server hosting the second discussion forum over the network, together with second credentials retrieved from the database. The second credentials are to allow the second discussion forum to authenticate the user in order to post the message on the second discussion forum.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to providingproduct services. More particularly, embodiments of the invention relateto full life cycle product services.

BACKGROUND

Prior to the advent and prolific use of distributed network environmentssuch as the Internet, customer service sessions typically occurred overa teleconference between a customer service agent or service specialistand a customer. These teleconferences, which incidentally are still verypopular today, are initiated by a customer placing a phone call to acustomer service agent. The customer service agent's phone receives thecall through a public-switched telephone network (PTSN). Many supportcenters handle a large volume of inquiries, usually by phone, for sales,information, customer support and other services. Typical supportcenters provide the ability to route multiple incoming,customer-initiated calls to agents which provide sales, information, orsupport on behalf of an entity interested in establishing or maintaininga relationship with the customer.

Modern support center systems selectively route incoming calls based ona number of factors such as the number called or dialed, the originatingnumber, the queued sequence of the caller, the geographic location ofthe caller, accumulated caller history, and other relevant criteria.Once the system has evaluated the inbound caller's information, if any,the system searches for an available agent to service the call.Availability of agents may be dependent on any number of factors such asa skill level or a schedule of the agent. The number of agents withinthe contact center and available to the system may often be limited bythe physical space available for the agents to operate. Contact centershave to deal with a limited number of agents to handle a large number ofincoming customer calls.

As the Internet is getting more popular, customer service providers nowprovide for computer-based customer service interaction by way of theWorld Wide Web. Instead of initiating a customer service session byusing the phone, customers may access a website and engage in aweb-based customer service session to make inquiries (e.g., technicalsupport) and/or perform tasks (e.g., paying bills). Web-based customerservice sessions offer numerous advantages over teleconference-basedsessions. For example, the graphical user interface of web-basedcustomer service applications permit customers to view illustrations orwritten explanations and thus ameliorate the miscommunications which mayarise with oral conversations between a customer service agent and acustomer.

Further, web-based customer service sessions enable a customer todirectly target his/her needs on the website and thus reduce the timeexpended both in navigating through a series of vocal menu choicesinapplicable to the consumer's particular needs and in waiting to speakto a service agent. Significantly, web-based customer service sessionsare particularly cost-effective for the customer service provider giventhat fewer agents are required to communicate with customers. Indeed,customers are provided functionality for finding answers to theirquestions or performing tasks without any help from a live agent. Thesecustomer service sessions may be entirely computer-based or,alternatively, involve interaction with a customer service agent.

While there are advantages to performing customer service sessions overthe web or other distributed network environments, there has been a lackof efficient platforms to take full advantage of today's technologies,particularly, the mobile technologies. In order to obtain customersupport from a service center, the customer is still required to takemany steps of manual processes such as a complicated process forregistering a product. While there are many ways (e.g., email, chat,voice) to communicate between a customer and an agent, there has been alack of an efficient mechanism to provide the customer the bestavailable and cost effective communication channels to an agent.

In addition, a typical service center only provides support services tothe customers; it does not provide any other services for the customers'products. For example, if a customer decides to dispose a product, aservice center would not be able to help the customer. Rather, thecustomer has to find another channel for disposal of the product, whichmay require the customer to maintain all the product information such asmodel number or serial number, etc. Such a process may be tedious, whichmay lead to improper disposal of the product.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the invention are illustrated by way of example and notlimitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which likereferences indicate similar elements.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a system for providing life cycleservices to products according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a service centeraccording to another embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for providing life cycleservices of a product according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIGS. 4A-4D are screenshots representing examples of graphical userinterfaces of an application according to one embodiment of theinvention.

FIGS. 5A-5F are screenshots representing examples of graphical userinterfaces of an application according to another embodiment of theinvention.

FIGS. 6A-6D are screenshots representing examples of graphical userinterfaces of an application according to another embodiment of theinvention.

FIGS. 7A-7Q are screenshots representing examples of graphical userinterfaces of an application according to another embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for providing life cycleproduct services according to another embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating a service center having a socialcommunity accessing platform according to one embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for social posting via aservice center according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for monitoring socialposting via a service center according to one embodiment of theinvention.

FIGS. 12A-12C are screenshots illustrating graphical user interfaces forposting items on social communities according to one embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 13 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for posting a message ona social community according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating a system for processing messageswithin a service center according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIGS. 15A-15F are screenshots illustrating examples of GUIs for settingfiltering rules from a mobile device according to certain embodiments ofthe invention.

FIG. 16 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for processing messagesaccording to one embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various embodiments and aspects of the inventions will be described withreference to details discussed below, and the accompanying drawings willillustrate the various embodiments. The following description anddrawings are illustrative of the invention and are not to be construedas limiting the invention. Numerous specific details are described toprovide a thorough understanding of various embodiments of the presentinvention. However, in certain instances, well-known or conventionaldetails are not described in order to provide a concise discussion ofembodiments of the present inventions.

Reference in the specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment”means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic describedin conjunction with the embodiment can be included in at least oneembodiment of the invention. The appearances of the phrase “in oneembodiment” in various places in the specification do not necessarilyall refer to the same embodiment.

According to some aspects, a service center provides a single platformto provide not only support services to a product registered by a user,but also other services such as selling or disposal of the product,participation in a discussion forum associated with the product, andproviding advertisements, promotions, rewards, and/or recall associatedwith the product on behalf of a client or manufacturer. These servicescan be provided to or initiated from a user through an applicationrunning within a mobile device through a variety of communicationschannels, without having to leave the same application from the mobiledevice and without requiring the user to provide detailed informationabout the product.

According to one aspect, in addition to registering a product with theservice center, a user can also register, for example, through theapplication running within a mobile device, one or more socialcommunities and/or one or more eCommerce sites by storing the necessarycredentials (e.g., usernames and passwords) of the servers hosting thesocial communities and eCommerce sites in a database (e.g., userdatabase) of the service center, where the database is associated with auser the mobile device. Subsequently, the user can transmit a salesrequest to sell or dispose a registered product by specifying one ormore of the eCommerce sites.

In response to the sales request, the service center is configured toretrieve the necessary credentials for the specified one or moreeCommerce sites and arrange the specified eCommerce sites for sellingthe product together with the associated credentials to allow theeCommerce sites to authenticate the user for the purpose of selling theproduct, such that the user does not have to provide the necessarycredentials at the point in time of the sales request and the user doesnot have to provide detailed information of the product to be posted onthe eCommerce sites describing the product to be sold. A single salesrequest received from the mobile device can specify multiple eCommercesites. The service center can also arrange a disposal facility todispose (e.g., recycle) a registered product without having a user tospecifically contact the disposal facility.

Similarly, a user can also post a message to one or more of theregistered social communities from the application running within themobile device without having to individually access the socialcommunities. In another aspect, a user can transmit a request from themobile device to the service center, where the request includes amessage to be posted and one or more community identifiers identifyingone or more registered social communities. In response, the servicecenter is configured to retrieve the associated credentials from thedatabase and to post the message to the specified social communitiestogether with the associated credentials allow the social communities toauthenticate the user, without having to prompt the user for the samecredentials.

In another aspect, a user can also configure a set of one or more rulesto specify whether certain types of messages received from parties(e.g., retailers, manufacturers, social communities) related to aregistered product should be routed to the user. These rules serve aspart of message filtering rules. The service center engages with therelated parties to allow the related parties to get in touch with theuser by sending certain messages such as product promotions, rewards,and/or recalls, etc. to the user. The service center may send a messageto a user via one or more communications channels preferred by the user,which may also be configured as a set of rules and stored in a databaseassociated with the user.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a system for providing life cycleservices to products according to one embodiment of the invention.Referring to FIG. 1, system 100 includes a mobile device 101 of a user,customer, or individual communicatively coupled to service center 102over a network. The network may be any kind of networks. Mobile device101 may be any kind of mobile devices including, but is not limited to,a laptop, mobile phone, tablet, media player, personal digital assistantor PDA, etc.

Service center 102 may be implemented in a centralized facility orserver. Alternatively, service center 102 may be implemented in multiplefacilities or servers in a distributed manner (e.g., cloud-based serviceplatforms). Service center 102 provides services to a variety ofproducts or services from a variety of clients or vendors. A client maybe a manufacturer, a distributor, a retailer, a service provider orbroker, a purchasing facility (e.g., Amazon™, Expedia™, or ISIS™), or acombination thereof. In one embodiment, service center 102 includesservice APIs 104 to communicate with other systems such as mobile device101, client's site 117, social communities 116, contact center 114including agents or experts 115, client backend systems 118,manufacturer backend systems 119, eCommerce sites 120 and otherauxiliary systems (e.g., billing system). Service center 102 can handleservice requests from customers of multiple clients. For example, aservice center may handle customer service requests for a number ofretail sales companies, sales calls for catalog sales companies, andpatient follow-up contacts for health care providers. In such astructure, the service center may receive service requests directly fromthe customers or through client support management systems.

In one embodiment, service center 102 further includes community servicesystem 105, support services system 106, post market service system 107,messaging system 108, and data warehouse 109. Support services system106 is responsible for handling support services requests from theusers, including identifying and registering a product, creating aninstance case context, selecting and assigning a customer representative(also referred to herein as an agent, specialist, or expert) to providesupport services to the users, and managing work flows, etc. An agentmay be selected based on a skill set or expertise of the agent, as wellas other factors such as geographic location, of the agent. The term“agent,” “specialist,” or “expert” refers to a service center personnelor a computerized application, in some cases, that respond to customerrequests. An agent may be locally situated at the service center orremotely situated over a network. Throughout this application, the termsof “agent,” “specialist,” and “expert” are interchangeable termsdependent upon the circumstances. In most cases, the term of “agent”collectively refers to a customer representative, a support agent, asupport specialist, a support expert, or a combination thereof, whichmay be a service center personnel and/or a computerized application.

In one embodiment, community service system 105 is responsible forcommunicating with social communities 116 via an API, for example, topost a message received from a user and to route the responses receivedfrom social communities 116 back to the user. Post market service system107 is responsible for handling post market activities associated withthe registered products, including selling a registered product oneCommerce sites 120 and arranging a disposal facility to dispose orrecycle the product, etc. Message system 108 is responsible for handlingany messages received from a variety of partners or parties, such asclient sites 117, client backend systems 118, manufacturer backendsystems, and eCommerce sites 120. Messages may be related to theregistered products of the user, such as, promotions, rewards, andrecall messages.

In one embodiment, data warehouse 109 includes product database 110,client database 111, user database 112, and knowledgebase 113. Productdatabase 110 is configured to store any data related to the registeredproducts including user manuals, etc. Client database 110 is configuredto store information related to clients such as client's preferredcommunications mechanisms. User database 112 is used to storeinformation related users, such as, for example, registered productsassociated with a user, communications channel preference of a user,credentials necessary for a user to access other sites, and/or messagingfiltering settings of a user, etc. Knowledge 113 is used to storeknowledgebase collected and compiled over a period of time, which can beused by agents 115 and/or users for self-support purposes.

In one embodiment, service center 102 further includes a multi-channelcommunication system (not shown) to provide one or more communicationchannels to any user or client to substantially concurrently accessservice center 102. Examples of communication channels include email,chat, texting (e.g., short messaging services or SMS), voice (e.g.,automated IVR, real-time, or VoIP), video, Web (e.g., Web conferencing),and/or online community forum (e.g., Facebook™ or Twitter™), etc. Notethat the multi-channel communication system may be fully or partiallyintegrated with service center 102 or alternatively, it may bemaintained or provided by a third party or partner (e.g.,communicatively coupled via service API 104 over a network). Servicecenter 102 further includes an automatic caller distribution (ACD)system (not shown) to receive, route, and manage voice calls exchangedvia the multi-channel communication system.

A customer can obtain support services from service center 102 via avariety of communication mechanisms. A customer can initiate a supportrequest to contact a live agent such as agents 115 in a live manner.Alternatively, a customer may browse certain knowledgebase, such as KB113 via a Web interface, in an attempt to find a solution to a problemof a product he/she purchased from a manufacturer via a client ofservice center 102.

According to one embodiment, application 103 is installed on mobiledevice 101 of a customer or user, where application 103 can serve as acentral service point to service center 102 that provides supportservices to a variety of products or services provided by a variety ofvendors. The vendors can be, for example, manufacturers, distributors,retailers, service brokers, purchasing houses, etc. of the products.Vendors may be the clients of service center 102 or entities having abusiness relationship with service center 102. A user (also referred toherein as a customer) can activate application 103 from the user'smobile device 101 to reach agents 105 the service center 102 or KB datacenter 114 via a variety of communication channels or media, such as,for example, email, chat, voice (including automated interactive voicerecognition or IVR, voice over Internet protocol or VoIP), video, Web,and/or online community-based forum, etc. Application 103 can be athin/thick client application or a Web-based application.

Note that a service center described throughout this application is notlimited to a traditional service center or call center, nor is itimplemented in a single physical location. A service center describedherein represents a collection of service logic or providerscommunicatively coupled to each other over a network in a distributed ora cloud-based fashion. The term of a service center herein representsany kind of service providers that provide a variety of services tocustomers or users. As described throughout this application, a servicecenter can be a set of enabling cloud-based service APIs, which enable avariety of consumer product services and support offerings via anintelligent set of technologies providing automated and/or livecommunications. In one embodiment, services provided by a service centercan include, but not limited to: 1) user, product, and loyaltyregistration and support services; 2) product wish list, reviews, andcomparisons; 3) purchasing and accessorizing services; 4) socialcommunity support and integration services; 5) intelligent knowledgesupport services; and 6) integrated sales and product dispositionservices, etc.

Also note that an agent, an expert, or a customer representativedescribed throughout this application is not limited to a real person.The term of an agent, an expert, or a customer representative can alsorefer to any processing logic or functional block that is configured orprogrammed to provide automated services to a customer, for example, viaservices APIs of the service center, without a need of a real personinvolved. Such processing logic and/or functional blocks can beimplemented in software, hardware, or a combination thereof. Furtherdetailed information concerning service center 102 can be found inco-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/085,397, filed Apr. 12,2011, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a service centeraccording to another embodiment of the invention. For example, system200 may be implemented as part of system 100 of FIG. 1. Referring toFIG. 2, as described above service 102 includes support service system106 and post market service system 107. Support service system 106 isconfigured to communicate with a user of mobile device via application103. Through a service API or APIs, a user can register a product withservice center 102 by scanning a machine-readable code such as abarcode, a universal product code (UPC), or a serial number of theproduct, for example, using a scanner or camera of mobile device andtransmitting the machine-readable code to service center 102 over anetwork.

Based on the machine-readable code, a registration module of supportservice system 106 is configured to compile any information concerningthe product without requiring the user to provide the same detailedinformation of the product. For example, the registration module isconfigured to access a variety of informational sources such as clientbackend systems 118 and manufacturer backend systems 119 of FIG. 1 toobtain the detailed information based on the machine-readable code,without requiring a user to provide the same detailed information.Further detailed information concerning registration of a product can befound in the above incorporated-by-reference co-pending application. Theinformation of the registered product or products may be stored in assetstore 206 of user database 112.

In addition, according to one embodiment, a user can also registereCommerce sites 207-208 with the service center 102. For example, a usercan provide necessary credentials that are required to access eCommercesites 207-208 and the credentials are stored in user database 112 aspart of credentials 205. Examples of credentials 205 include usernamesand/or passwords of the user to access eCommerce sites 207-208.Credentials 205 can be subsequently used for accessing eCommerce sites207-208 without prompting the user for the same.

As described above, support service system 106 is configured to providesupport services to a user regarding a registered product stored inasset store 206. For example, in response to a request for supportservices of a registered product received from application 103 of mobiledevice 101, support service system 106 is configured to establish acommunications session between a user of mobile device 101 and one ofagents 115 using one or more communications channels (e.g., voice,email, chat, video, etc.) that are preferred by the user and areavailable to the agent. The preference of the communications channelsmay be previously configured or registered with service center 102 bythe user and such preferences may also be stored in a preference store(note shown) of user database 112.

According to one embodiment, post market system 107 includes a salesengine 202 and disposal engine 203. Sales engine 202 is responsible forselling a registered product from asset store 206 on at least one ofeCommerce sites 207-208. In one embodiment, a user can utilizeapplication 103 of mobile device to send a request to service center 102for selling a registered product. The request may simply identify aregistered product with a listing price and one or more identifiersidentifying one or more of eCommerce sites 207-208 for selling theproduct, without having to provide other detailed information such asdetailed product information and necessary credentials for accessing thesocial community sites 207-208.

In response to the request, sales engine 202 is configured to retrievethe necessary credentials 205 required to access eCommerce sites 207-208and the necessary product information (e.g., description orspecification, etc.) from the product database (e.g., product database110) and/or client database (e.g., client database 111). Sales engine202 then transmits the product information, listing price, and theassociated credentials to the specified eCommerce sites 207-208 via API201. API 201 may include specific APIs for accessing different eCommercesites using a variety of communications protocols.

The eCommerce sites 207-208 can authenticate the user based on thereceived credentials without requiring service center 102 to prompt theuser for the same credentials at the time of submitting the sales. Uponhaving successfully authenticated the user, the sales of the product maybe posted on the eCommerce sites 207-208 based on the received productinformation and the listing price. In one embodiment, a single requestfrom mobile device 101 can be used to post a sales item on multipleeCommerce sites 207-208 without having the user to submit the sales itemmultiple times. Sales engine 202 is configured to coordinate the salestransactions among eCommerce sites 207-208, for example, to prevent thesame item to be sold on multiple sites, etc. For example, when an itemhas been sold on a first site, the listing of the same item will bewithdrawn from a second site.

In one embodiment, service center 102 can also perform or invoke anotherentity to perform market survey concerning current market conditions ofa product, for example, based on operating conditions of the product atthe point in time, which may be provided by a user. Based on the survey,service center 102 can provide an estimated market value of a registeredproduct and transmit the estimated value to mobile device 101 anddisplayed by application 103. The estimated market value of the productcan help the user to set a selling price.

According to another embodiment, service center 102 can also promote orsuggest other products (e.g., accessories) related to the registeredproducts to the user and provide a purchasing platform to allow a userto purchase the related products. The purchasing functionality may beimplemented as part of sales engine 202 or a separate component. Once aproduct is purchased via service center 102, the purchased product isautomatically registered within service center 102 without the user tospecifically register the product, for example, based on the productinformation and/or client information obtained from manufacturer and/orclient backend systems.

Note that a manufacturer or retailer often wishes to promote or reward acustomer who purchased its product or subscribed its loyalty program.Alternatively, a manufacturer or retailer may also notify a userconcerning a recall of user's products. Such a promotion, reward, ornotice may be received by service center 102 from a variety of sourcessuch as manufacturers and retailers. Service center 102 can associatesuch a promotion or reward with a registered product and transmit such apromotion or reward to mobile device 101 as a suggestion to the user. Asa result, service center 102 enables the manufacturers or retailers toreach their customers, similar to targeted advertisement. Meanwhile, auser does not have to browse around in order to find out any productupgrades or product recall associated its registered products. The usercan simply rely on service center 102 for such services.

According to another embodiment, disposal engine 203 is configured toarrange disposal facilities 209 to dispose a registered product if theuser no longer wishes to maintain the product. In this situation, a userdoes not have to individually find out who can dispose or recycle aparticular type of products. Instead, the user can initiate a requestfrom mobile device 101 requesting disposal of a registered product. Inresponse to the request, disposal engine 203 is configured to determinea particular one of disposal facilities 209 that is capable of disposingor recycling the requested product and to transmit the information ofthe selected one of disposal facilities 209 to allow the user to contactthe selected disposal facility or alternatively, disposal engine 203 canestablish a communications sessions between the user and a customerrepresentative from the selected disposal facility, for example, using acommunications channel preferred by the user and available to thecustomer representative. Thus, service center 102 is able to provide asingle platform capable of providing product registration, support,buying and selling, and disposal, i.e., a full life cycle support of aproduct.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for providing life cycleservices of a product according to one embodiment of the invention.Method 300 may be performed by service center 102 of FIG. 2. Referringto FIG. 3, at block 301, a request for registering a product is receivedat a service center from a mobile device over a network. The product mayrepresent an actual product item or a service such as a loyalty program.The request includes a machine-readable code uniquely identifying theproduct to be registered. The machine-readable code may be obtained byscanning the machine-readable code from the product (e.g., surface ofthe product or loyalty membership card) using a scanner or camera of themobile device. At block 302, in response to the request, productinformation is compiled based on the machine-readable code withoutrequiring the user to specifically provide the same and productinformation is stored in a database (e.g., asset store of a userdatabase).

Subsequently, at block 303, in response to a request received from themobile device for support services of a registered product, acommunications session is established between the user and an agent,using one or more communications channels preferred by the user andavailable to the agent to enable the agent to provide the supportservices. Later on, at block 304, in response to a request received fromthe mobile device for disposal of a registered product, processing logicarranges one or more selected disposal vendors to dispose the productwithout having the user to specifically search and contact the disposalvendors.

FIGS. 4A-4D are screenshots representing examples of graphical userinterfaces of an application according to one embodiment of theinvention. For example, the GUIs as shown in FIGS. 4A-4D may beimplemented as part of application 103 installed on mobile device 101 ofFIG. 1. Referring to FIGS. 4A-4D, the GUI as shown in FIG. 4A isdisplayed when a user launches the application from its mobile device.The application as shown in FIG. 4A includes multiple pages 406-414,each of which can be activated and displayed by activating (e.g.,clicking, tapping, or via a voice interactive command) the correspondinggraphical representation (e.g., icon). Before a user can access any oneof the pages 406-414, the user has to either create a user account orlog into an existing user account of the support center.

As described above, when the application is launched, the application isconfigured to communicate with the service center (e.g., service center102 of FIG. 2) via a set of APIs. A user can log in and access itsexisting account via button 404, which in turn access the existingaccount at the support center. If the user does not have an existingaccount, the user can also create a new account via button 402. Whenbutton 402 is activated, the GUI page as shown in FIG. 4B is displayed,which is a part of account page 410. In one embodiment, the GUI page asshown in FIG. 4B allows the user to enter any user specific information,such as, for example, name 416, email address(es) 418, phone number(s)420, address(es) 422, social site(s) 424, and other information such aspreferences (not shown), etc. For example, a user can activate socialsite 424 to specify one or more social community sites in which the userhas an account, such as social community sites 426-430 as shown in FIG.4C. By specifying social sites 426-430, the user gives a consent orpermission to the system to access its information via the correspondingsocial sites (not limited to shown) 426-430.

In one embodiment, a user can also specify support communicationpreferences by activating the corresponding preference item (not shown)from the list displayed on the GUI page as shown in FIG. 4B. Apreference setting page as shown in FIG. 4D allows a user to specify oneor more communication channels, such as voice 432, chat 434, email 436,and other channels (e.g., video chat, SMS, scheduled call back, etc.).Such communication preferences of the user can be used in combination ofcommunication preferences of a client to determine availability ofcommunication channels to allow the user to reach an agent of thesupport center during a subsequent support service as described above.The user can also specify, via setting 438, whether the system canutilize global positioning system (GPS) location services to providegeographical location information of the user (e.g., presenceinformation) as part of support services provided to the user. Byenabling GPS location services 438, the user gives consent or permissionto the system for such a usage for the purpose of privacy concerns.

FIGS. 5A-5F are screenshots representing examples of graphical userinterfaces of an application according to another embodiment of theinvention. For example, GUI page 500 of FIGS. 5A-5F can be displayed byactivating products tab 406 from GUI pages of FIGS. 4A-4D. Referring toFIGS. 5A-5F, GUI 500 is displayed including a list of one or moreproducts, such as products 506 and 508, which are owned and have beenregistered by the user. GUI page 500 further includes search tool 504 toallow a user to search a particular registered product. From the list ofregistered products as shown in FIG. 5A, if a particular product has anevent or notification pending, a number representing number of events ornotifications is also displayed within proximity of the correspondingproduct. For example, number 510 indicates that there is at least onepending event or notification of product 508.

In one embodiment, GUI page 500 further includes button 502 to registeran additional product. When button 502 is activated, GUI page 518 isdisplayed as shown in FIG. 5B. GUI page 518 allows a user to register aproduct via variety of current mechanisms as well as future mechanismsas they are technically made available. A user can register a product byscanning a barcode or barcodes of a product via link 512 or scanning aQR code or codes of a product via link 514. Alternatively, a user canmanually enter product information via link 516.

For the purpose of illustration, it is assumed that the user wishes toregister a product by scanning a barcode via link 512. According to oneembodiment, when link 512 is activated, GUI page 520 is displayed asshown in FIG. 5C. Referring to FIG. 5C, in this embodiment, a user canscan a barcode using GUI page 520 to register a product. The user canplace barcode 528 of the product within scanning window 526 to obtainproduct ID 522 and/or serial number 524 of the product. The scannedinformation is then transmitted from the mobile device to the supportcenter to allow the system to compile the necessary information aboutthe product and/or user. As described above, the system can communicatewith all the parties (e.g., retailer, manufacturer, etc.) via properservice APIs to automatically obtain information such as productinformation, loyalty information, or the like, without userintervention. For certain information that cannot be obtainedautomatically, the user can manually enter the information. The detailedinformation can then be stored in a customer asset store (e.g., assetstore 206 of FIG. 2).

In one embodiment, the product detailed information can be retrievedfrom the support center and displayed on the mobile device as part ofGUI page 530 as shown in FIG. 5D. Referring to FIG. 5D, the displayedproduct detailed information includes (but not limited to) the productID, serial number, purchase date, and warranty information, etc. Inaddition, GUI page 530 further includes one or more links 532-538 toallow a user to access other information associated with thecorresponding product. In one embodiment, link 532 allows a user toaccess a notification issued on the product, such as an offer to upgradeor discount, a recall notification, etc. Link 534 allows a user toaccess the detailed specification of the product. Link 536 allows a userto access documents such as user manuals of the product. Link 538 allowsa user to access an online community (e.g., discussion forum) associatedwith the product or mechanisms to post to a community directly. Notethat GUI page 530 can also be accessed or displayed by selecting one ofthe registered products (e.g., product 506) from GUI page 500 of FIG.5A.

According to one embodiment, GUI page 530 further includes button 540 toallow a user to obtain support services from the support center. Whenbutton 540 is activated from GUI page 530 of FIG. 5D, a GUI page similarto GUI page 550 is displayed as shown in FIG. 5E, where GUI page 550 canbe used to obtain support services for registered products and/orloyalty programs. Within GUI page 550, according to one embodiment, alist of one or more communication channels or mechanisms that areavailable to a user to contact a support agent is displayed. In thisexample, the available communication channels include voice 552, whilechat 554 and email 556 are unavailable. As described above, theavailability of the communication channels is determined based on user'spreferences and client's preferences. Note that for purposes ofillustration only, voice, chat, and email are utilized examples ofcommunication channels; other communication channels such as video chat,SMS, call back, etc., can also be utilized. Assuming that chat 554 isavailable in this example, a user can launch a chat session with anagent of the support center to obtain support services as shown in FIG.5F. Since the user launched support from within the product (in thisexample product 506, iPad of GUI page 500), user and product specificdata is sent as a part of the request for service to allow a supportspecialist to understand the context of the interaction.

Similar to the product registration, according to one embodiment, aloyalty or reward card of a client (e.g., retailer) can also beregistered with the support center via the application running within amobile device. FIGS. 6A-6D are screenshots representing examples ofgraphical user interfaces of an application according to anotherembodiment of the invention. For example, GUI page 600 of FIG. 6A can beretrieved and displayed by activating loyalty tab 408 from other GUIpages, which lists a list of registered loyalty programs of the user.Referring to FIGS. 6A-6D, a user can also search a registered loyaltyprogram using search tool 602. A user can also register an additionalloyalty program by activating button 604, which displays GUI page 606 asshown in FIG. 6B. From GUI page 606, the user can register a loyaltyprogram by either scanning, using a scanner or camera of a mobiledevice, a barcode of a loyalty card via link 608 or manually enteringthe information via link 610. If the user wishes to register viascanning, the user can activate link 608, which displays the GUI page asshown in FIG. 6C. Similar to scanning barcodes of a product, from theGUI page of FIG. 6C, a user can register a loyalty program by scanning abarcode of a loyalty card or reward card.

Based on the information obtain from the scanning or from the user,detailed loyalty information can be obtained by the support center fromproper informal sources via proper APIs. The detailed information canalso be retrieved from the system and displayed as GUI page 620 on themobile device as shown in FIG. 6D. Referring to FIG. 6D, from GUI page620, a user can access one or more offers (e.g., rewards, discounts,upgrades, etc.) from the program via link 622. The user can also find anearby office via link 624; access an online community associated withthe program via link 626; and access the program's Web site via link628. If the user needs to talk to a live agent concerning thecorresponding loyalty program, the user can activate support button 630,which brings the user to a support GUI page similar those as shown inFIGS. 5E and 5F.

FIGS. 7A-7N are screenshots representing examples of graphical userinterfaces of an application according to another embodiment of theinvention. For example, GUI page 700 of FIG. 7A can be displayed byactivating services tab 412. Referring to FIGS. 7A-7N, GUI page 700 ofFIG. 7A includes (but not limited to) displayed therein a list ofservices 702-718 that can be provided to the user by the support center.In one embodiment, a user can compile a list of items the user wishes tohave by activating link 702, which displays GUI 720 as shown in FIG. 7B.

Referring to FIG. 7B, from GUI page 720, a user can search for an itemthat is interesting to the user using search tool 721. For example, auser can search on the Internet for an item the user wishes for.Alternatively, the user can scan using scanning tool 722 a barcode or QRcode of the wished product. This is useful when a user is shopping in aretail store in that the user can scan, using a scanner or camera of amobile device, the barcode of the product in order to add the productinto its wish list. In one embodiment, for each of the items listed inthe wish list, the user can review other people's comments about theproduct by activating button 724, which brings a list of comments fromother users as shown in FIG. 7C. In addition, the user can also comparethe product with another one by activating button 726, which displayscomparison GUI page as shown in FIG. 7D. From the GUI page of FIG. 7D,each of the products listed also includes information indicating whetherthe corresponding product is currently owned by the user. Further, theuser can display detailed comparison information (e.g., side-by-sideinformation) by activating button 728. Note that the GUI page as shownin FIG. 7C can also be displayed via link 704 of FIG. 7A and the GUIpage as shown in FIG. 7D can also be displayed via link 706 of FIG. 7A.

Referring now to FIGS. 7E and 7F, a user can also obtain supportservices from the support center via link 712 of FIG. 7A. To obtaininformation about accessories associated with a particular product inone embodiment, GUI page 730 can be displayed via link 710 of FIG. 7A.GUI page 730 includes a list of products that have been registered. Eachof the listed products includes a button to accessorize thecorresponding product such as button 732. When the button, in thisexample, button 732, is activated, GUI page 734 is displayed. In oneembodiment, GUI page 734 includes a list of accessories 736 includingretailers from which the accessories can be purchased (e.g., via buttons737-739 or via link 714 of FIG. 7A). All of the information is obtainedand provided by the support center, where the support centercommunicates with each of the retailers via a proper API to obtain thedetailed information as described above, without requiring user's manualefforts. The items presented are recommended accessories based on avariety of factors or considerations such as, for example, the mostpurchased product accessories by users with the same or similarregistered product, as well as the users' recent interactions orbehaviors with the service center.

According to one embodiment, a user can also access self-supportknowledge such as most asked questions via link 708 of FIG. 7A. Whenlink 708 is activated, GUI page 740 of FIG. 7G is displayed. GUI page740 includes a list of answers to most viewed questions asked by otherusers on the same or similar product. The information may be compiled bythe support center based on data collected from a variety ofinformational sources as described above or built dynamically based onsome or all users use of the knowledge. The list of articles displayedmay also be compiled based on user's profile such as registered productsand/or historical interaction or purchases. Detailed answers to each ofquestions such as question 744 can be displayed (in this example as GUIpage 742) via the corresponding link as shown in FIG. 7H. Referring toFIG. 7H, an article including a detailed answer is displayed on the GUIpage. In addition, the user can rate the article, which contributes tothe overall rating of the article. Further, based on the article, thesystem also compiles and provides a list of suggested articles that maybe related to the currently displayed article or is the next typicalarticle other users have reviewed in conjunction with the first.

According to one embodiment, for each of the registered products, thesupport center can also provide services to a user to sell the productat a variety of ecommerce platforms. In one embodiment, a user canactivate link 716 to arrange selling one or more of its registeredproducts. When link 716 is activated, selling GUI page 750 is displayedas shown in FIG. 7I. GUI page 750 lists all the products that have beenregistered with the support center. A user can sell any one of them byactivating a sell button of the corresponding product. For example, auser can sell product 752 by activating sell button 754, which displaysGUI page 760 as a posting helper. From GUI page 760, the user canspecify one or more selling platforms or venues to sell thecorresponding product. The user can also specify the selling or auctionprice 764 and payment method 766 as shown in FIG. 7K.

Payment method 766 may be a variety of payment methods provided by avariety of payment processing providers, such as PayPal™ from eBay® orCheckout™ from Google®, etc. Similarly, according to one embodiment, thenecessary credentials for accessing the corresponding payment processingproviders may be previously registered with the service center andstored in a database associated with the user, such that the user doesnot have to specifically provide the same credentials at the point ofbuying and/or selling an item via the corresponding payment processingproviders. A user can register multiple payment processing accounts withthe service center and from the GUI as shown in FIG. 7K, the user canselect one of them to be associated with the current transaction.

In one embodiment, the posting helper provides a user interface to querythe user concerning certain conditions of the product to be sold asshown in FIGS. 7M and 7N. Based on the condition information receivedfrom the user, the system can estimate a market price to be sold orauctioned as shown in FIG. 7O. Such an estimate may be generated by thesystem based on the market condition and/or other users' transactions onsimilar products. After the sale has been posted, the selected sellingplatforms are also displayed on GUI page 750 as shown in FIG. 7L.

Referring back to FIG. 7I, for some products such as product 756, basedon the available information, the user wishes to dispose of a productvia a recycle or the processing logic may determine that it is time torecycle the product. In one embodiment, when a user attempts selling ordisposing a product, a disposal helper may be displayed and utilized tocollect condition information of the product. Based on the informationreceived from the user and the market condition, the disposal helper maysuggest whether the product should be disposed or sold. If the systemdetermines that the product should be disposed, recycle button 758 isdisplayed, which when activated, the processing logic is configured toarrange a recycle vendor to pick up and/or dispose the correspondingproduct, as shown in FIGS. 7P and 7Q. The disposal helper may furtherprovide suggestions to dispose if the user decides to dispose itself. Asa result, the user does not have to individually find a recycling vendorto handle the recycle. The disposal GUI can also be displayed via link718 of FIG. 7A. Also, note that GUIs as shown in FIGS. 4A-4D, 5A-5F,6A-6D, and 7A-7Q are shown and described for the purposes ofillustration only; other formats or layouts may also be applied herein.Also note that any button, control, or link displayed in any of FIGS.4A-4D, 5A-5F, 6A-6D, and 7A-7Q can be activated by clicking, tapping, orvia a voice interactive command.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for providing life cycleproduct services according to another embodiment of the invention.Method 800 may be performed by mobile device 101 of FIG. 2. Referring toFIG. 8, at block 801, a GUI page is displayed on a mobile device. Wherethe GUI page includes one or more selectable graphical representations(e.g., buttons, checkboxes), each graphical representation correspondsto an eCommerce site (e.g., eBay, Amazon). At block 802, at least oneinput field is displayed on the GUI page to allow a user to specifyeCommerce transaction requirements (e.g., price, time period) forselling a product registered with a service center on one or more of theselectable eCommerce sites.

At block 803, an estimated market value for the registered product ispresented on the GUI page. The estimated value is retrieved from theservice center, which determines the estimated market value based on thecurrent market conditions of the same or similar products. In responseto a user input, at block 804, a first and second eCommerce sites areidentified based on the user selection of the corresponding graphicalrepresentation. At block 805, the information of selling the registeredproduct is transmitted from the mobile device to the service center. Theservice center is configured to post the product on the first and secondeCommerce sites using credentials previously registered with the servicecenter without prompting the user for the same, in order to allow theeCommerce sites to authenticate the user for the purpose of posting theproduct for sales.

According to another embodiment, a service center can also provide asocial community accessing platform to allow a user to access from itsmobile device one or more social community to participate one or morediscussion forums associated with one or more registered products. FIG.9 is a block diagram illustrating a service center having a socialcommunity accessing platform according to one embodiment of theinvention. Referring to FIG. 9, in one embodiment, community servicesystem 105 includes, but is not limited to, social posting engine 902and social monitoring engine 903 communicatively coupled to socialcommunities 904-905 via APIs 901. APIs 901 may be implemented as acommon API or separate APIs for accessing social communities 904-905.Social posting engine 902 allows a user to post a message viaapplication 103 of mobile device 101 to one or more of socialcommunities 904-905 without having to leave application 103 of mobiledevice 101.

According to one embodiment, when a user wishes to post a message to oneor more of social communities 904-905, the user can create a message ona GUI page of application 103 and specify the social community orcommunities. The a request for posting a message is then transmittedfrom mobile device 101 to service center 102 and received by socialposting engine 902. In one embodiment, the request includes informationidentifying a message to be posted, one or more social communities inwhich the message is to be posted, and a registered product associatedwith the posting. Based on the request, social posting engine 902 isconfigured to retrieve the necessary credentials from credential store205 for accessing the social communities. The credentials for accessingsocial communities 904-905 may be previously registered with servicecenter 102 and stored in credential store 205. Examples of thecredentials 205 may include usernames and passwords.

Based on the registered product, social posting engine 902 can alsoidentify one or more discussion threads or forums of social communities904-905 that are associated with the product. Thereafter, social postingengine 902 transmits the message and the necessary credentials to one ormore of social communities 904-905 for the purpose of posting themessage. If a connection to a social community is unavailable, socialposting engine 902 may store the post in a queue until the connectionbecomes available. As a result, a user does not have to provide thenecessary credentials to service center 102 at the time of posting. Theuser may not have to identify which of the discussion forums ordiscussion threads in which the message should be posted. All the userneeds is to specify which of the social communities and the productassociated with the posting.

Similarly, when a response is received from social communities 904-905in response to the posted message, social posting engine 902 isconfigured to route the response back to mobile device 101.Alternatively, the response may be routed to the user according to oneor more communications channels preferred by the user, which may beconfigured previously and stored in user database 112 (e.g., userprofile). Thus, a single message can be posted onto multiple accounts ofthe same social community. A single message can also be posted ontomultiple accounts across multiple social communities. A social communitycan be hosted or maintained by a third-party social networking provider(e.g., Facebook™ Twitter™), a retailer (e.g., Amazon™, Bestbuy™), or amanufacturer (e.g., Samsung™)

According to one embodiment, community service system 105 furtherincludes social monitoring engine 903 configured to monitor messagepostings to social communities 904-905 via social posting engine 902 andthe responses received from social communities 904-905. In oneembodiment social monitoring engine 903 is configured to collect dataconcerning all the social posting activities. The data collection mayinclude, but is not limited to, user IDs and date and time of post,communities the post is made to, user accounts post is being made to,user account the post is being made from, device the post is being madefrom (e.g., mobile, tablet, Web), etc. Based on the monitoring, socialposting statistics 907 can be generated. In one embodiment, socialposting statistics 907 includes, but is not limited to, a number ofposts by time and day, number of posts by day of week, number of userscreating posts, number of products with posts, number of brands orloyalty with posts, and products least posted about, etc.

In one embodiment, an enhanced analysis may be performed on thecollected data and statistics to identify trends, activities based onevents, or others, including, but not limited to, most social channelsused to post, the types of accounts (e.g., user accounts,manufacturers/loyalty accounts or both) of the posts, productsassociated with the posts, services associated with the posts, thebrands associated with the posts, number of the posts by products andservices, and times of day and days of week of the posts, etc.

Social monitoring engine 903 is configured to monitor a socialenvironment gathering data about topics posted in communities 904-905.In one embodiment, social monitoring engine 903 is configured toidentify posts that have both positive and/or negative sentimentregarding a product or brand. Social monitoring engine 903 may alsoidentify activities based on either the positive or negative sentimentsuch as whether the traffic is heavy on the topic, whether a positivesentiment is trending negative, and whether a negative sentiment istrending positive. Social monitoring engine 903 may also determine othersocial community sites that are discussing the same or similar topics ortrends. Social monitoring engine 903 may also determine the most activeusers participating in the community and/or whether the community isworking to find a solution or the community needs an assistance to moveforward. The sentiment data or social statistics 907 can be utilized byagent/expert/specialist 906 to participate in the discussion, forexample, by interjecting comments into a negative discussion andattempting to turn it positive, or identifying a solution that thecommunity has found to be positive and posts to other communities thatmay not have knowledge of the resolution. The solution or commentsposted in a discussion forum may also be converted into knowledgebase(e.g., KB 113 of FIG. 1) for future references.

In one embodiment, based on the monitoring, a user having participatedin a discussion and posted positive comments about a product may berewarded by the service center, a retailer, and/or a manufacturerassociated with the product. A user having posted a negative commentabout a product may be contacted by an agent, expert, or specialist toresolve the issues in an attempt to turn the negative experience into apositive one.

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for social posting via aservice center according to one embodiment of the invention. Method 1000may be performed by community service system 105 of FIG. 9. Referring toFIG. 10, at block 1001, a service center receives a request from amobile device over a network for posting an item. The request identifiesa first social community and a second social community. At block 1002,based on the request, first credentials associated with the user foraccessing the first social community is retrieved from a database. Atblock 1003, the item and the first credentials are transmitted to thefirst social community for authentication of the user and posting theitem on the first social community. At block 1004, based on the request,second credentials associated with the user for accessing the secondsocial community are retrieved from the database. At block 1005, theitem and the second credentials are transmitted to the second socialcommunity for authentication of the user and posting the item on thesecond social community. As a result, the user does not have to providethe credentials at the point in time of the posting.

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for monitoring socialposting via a service center according to one embodiment of theinvention. Method 1100 may be performed by community service system 105of FIG. 9. Referring to FIG. 11, at block 1101, processing logicmonitors social posting activities performed by users via a servicecenter. At block 1102, a discussion thread or forum of a socialcommunity is identified in which at least registered user discusses aproduct that has been registered with the service center. At block 1103,the information concerning the identified discussion thread istransmitted to an agent or specialist associated with the service centerto allow the agent or specialist to provide support services concerningthe product via the social community.

FIGS. 12A-12C are screenshots illustrating graphical user interfaces forposting items on social communities according to one embodiment of theinvention. GUI 1200 may be activated from link 538 of FIG. 5D or link626 of FIG. 6D. Referring to FIG. 12A, GUI 1200 displays a title orabstract 1201 of a particular product and a support button 1202. A usercan activate support button 1202 to contact an agent or expert forsupport services as described above with respect to FIGS. 5A-5F.

In addition, GUI 1200 includes a list of social communities 1203-1206that the user has previously registered with the service center,including providing the necessary credentials for accessing socialcommunities 1203-1206, as described above with respect to FIGS. 4A-4D.The credentials are stored within the service center, for example, aspart of a user database or user profile associated with the user. A usercan select or activate any of the social community links 1203-1206 topost a message to the selected social community or communities.

For example, if a user selects link 1203, a posting page associated withselected social community is displayed as shown in FIG. 12B. Referringto FIG. 12B, GUI 1220 includes one or more graphical representations1210-1211 representing different accounts associated with socialcommunity 1203. A graphical representation can be an icon, a button, ora checkbox, etc. GUI 1220 also includes an input field 1212 to allow auser to enter a message to be posted to one or more of accounts1210-1211, which may be selected by activating or selecting thecorresponding graphical representations. Once the message has beenentered in input field, the user can activate button 1213 to post themessage to the selected social communities.

In response to the activation of button 1213, the underlying applicationis configured to transmit the message, the associated productidentifier, and identifier(s) identifying one or more social communitiesto the service center. The service center can then compile the necessarydetailed product information to determine one or more discussion threadsor forums, as well as the necessary credentials for accessing theselected social communities. Thereafter, the service center posts themessage to the identified discussion threads of selected socialcommunities on behalf of the user using associated credentials. As aresult, the user does not have to identify the discussion threads orprovide the necessary credentials for accessing the selected socialcommunities. Similarly, a user can post a message in community 1204 viaGUI 1222 as shown in FIG. 12C.

Note that a single message can be posted, via a single transaction froma mobile device, on different social communities, different accounts ofthe same social community, or different accounts on different socialcommunities. Also note that the GUIs as shown in FIGS. 12A-12C aredescribed for illustration purpose only; other layouts or formats mayalso be applied. Any of the selectable graphical representationsdescribed herein can be activated via a keystroke on a keyboard, a mouseclick, tapping or swiping on a touch screen, and/or a voice command,etc.

FIG. 13 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for posting a message ona social community according to one embodiment of the invention. Method1300 may be performed by processing logic of mobile device 101 of FIG.9, which may include software, hardware, or a combination thereof.Referring to FIG. 13, at block 1301, processing logic displays a GUIpage on a display of a mobile device, where the GUI page includes one ormore selectable graphical representations, each representing a socialcommunity. In addition, at block 1302, an input field is displayed onthe GUI page to allow a user to enter a message to be posted on one ormore of the selectable social communities. At block 1303, in response toa user input, processing logic identifies a first social community and asecond social community that are selectable via the correspondingselectable graphical representations. At block 1304, processing logictransmits the message obtained from the input field and the identifiersidentifying the first and second social communities to a service centerover a network. The service center is configured to post the message onbehalf of the user on the first and second social communities using thecorresponding previously registered credentials without prompting theuser for the same.

As described above, a service center may often receive messages from avariety of sources, where the messages may or may not be related toregistered products within the service center. Some of the messages maybe useful or interesting to the users such as promotions or rewards ofthe products. Others may be important to the users such as recallnotifications of the products. According to some embodiments, theservice center is configured to route the messages to the registeredusers based on users' settings.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating a system for processing messageswithin a service center according to one embodiment of the invention.System 1400 may be implemented as part of system 100 of FIG. 1.Referring to FIG. 14, service center 102 includes messaging system 108to receive, via one or more APIs 1401, from a variety of sources, suchas social communities 116, client sites 117, client backend systems 118,manufacturer backend systems 119, and eCommerce sites 120. The messagesmay or may not be related to registered products stored in asset store206 of user database 112 associated with the registered users. Forexample, a message may be an advertisement received from a retailer ormanufacturer, including, but is not limited to, a promotion of a relatedproduct or accessory to a registered product, a discount coupon, anupgrade, or a service schedule reminder, etc. Alternatively, a messagemay be a recall notification concerning a registered product of a user.

In one embodiment, a user can configure a set of one or more filteringrules 1402 specifying whether a particular type of messages should berouted to the user. Filtering rules 1402 may also specify whether amessage or a particular type of messages associated with a particularregistered product should be received by the user. Filtering rules 1402can also specify whether a message received from a particular sourceshould be forwarded to the user. In one embodiment, certain types ofmessages are not available to be filtered out. For example, any recallmessage of any registered product must be routed to users, regardless ofthe configuration of filtering rules 1402. A message may be routed to auser using one or more communications channels configured by the userand stored in communications channel preference 1403.

In one embodiment, in response to a message received one of sources116-120, message system 108 is configured to determine whether themessage should be routed to a user associated with mobile device 101based on a set of filtering rules 1402 associated with the user. Iffiltering rules 1402 permit, the message is routed to mobile device 101or one of other devices associated with the user dependent upon thesettings of communications channel preference 1403. Certain types ofmessages such as recall notifications may be routed to the userregardless of the filtering settings. As described above, the messagemay be related to a registered product specified in asset store 206 ofthe user. Alternatively, the message may be related to other products orservices that are likely interesting to the user, for example, based onuser's interactive history, habits, and/or registered products orservices, which may be determined over a period of time by an analysismodule (not shown) within the service center 102.

FIGS. 15A-15F are screenshots illustrating examples of GUIs for settingfiltering rules from a mobile device according to certain embodiments ofthe invention. GUIs as shown in FIGS. 15A-15F may be presented by mobiledevice 101 of FIG. 14. Referring FIG. 15A, GUI 1500 may be presented aspart of preference setting GUIs as shown in FIG. 4D. In one embodiment,GUI 1500 includes a list of one or more categories of message filtering,in this example, advertisement message filtering. In this example,categories include manufacturer category 1501, loyalty category 1502,and social community category 1503. However, other categories may alsobe included, which may be user configurable. Each of categories1501-1503 may include zero or more entities. A user can configure eachof the entities included in each of categories 1501-1503 by selectingthe corresponding links 1501-1503.

According to one embodiment, when a user activates link 1501, GUI page1510 is displayed as shown in FIG. 15B. Referring to FIG. 15B, GUI page1510 includes a list of one or more manufacturers 1511-1515. Each ofmanufacturers 1511-1515 can be turned on or off to receive message fromthe corresponding manufacturer. Similarly, a user can also activatelinks 1502 and 1503 to display GUI page 1520 having a list of retailers1521-1524 and GUI page 1530 having a list of social communities1531-1534, respectively, where each of entities 1521-1524 and 1531-1534can be individually turned on or off to receive messages from thecorresponding entity. FIG. 15E is a screenshot of a regular display ofregistered products while FIG. 15F is a screenshot when the devicereceives an advertisement message 1550, which may be related toregistered product 1555.

The settings of these filtering rules are then transmitted from themobile device to a service center to be stored in a database associatedwith the user. In addition, the application may also allow a user keep aset of local filtering rules within the local device in addition tothose stored at the service center. That is, a user may have multipledevices communicatively coupled to the service center and each devicemay have a local set of filtering rules, while all devices share aglobal set of filtering rules stored in the service center. In this way,a message may be routed to a first of user's devices, but is blocked tobe displayed on a second of the user's devices. For example, a textmessage may be sent to user's mobile device while a content rich message(e.g., images or video) may be sent to a desktop of the user, forexample, based on the available communications bandwidth.

FIG. 16 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for processing messagesaccording to one embodiment of the invention. Method 1600 may beperformed by messaging system 108 of service center 102 of FIG. 14.Referring to FIG. 16, at block 1601, a request is received from a mobiledevice for registering a product at a service center. The requestincludes a machine-readable code uniquely identifying the product andfiltering preference of messages to be received from the associatedparties such as retailers, manufacturers, and social communities. Atblock 1602, processing logic compiles product information based on themachine-readable code without requiring the user to provide the same. Inaddition, processing logic configures a set of filtering rulesassociated with the registered products and/or vendors of the registeredproducts. Subsequently at block 1603, in response to a message (e.g.,advertisement) from a party received at the service center, the servicecenter identifies a registered product associated with the party. Atblock 1604, a filtering rule is determined to determine whether themessage should be routed to the user. At block 1605, the message istransmitted to the user if the rules permit.

Some portions of the preceding detailed descriptions have been presentedin terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations ondata bits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are the ways used by those skilled in the dataprocessing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their workto others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally,conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of operations leading to adesired result. The operations are those requiring physicalmanipulations of physical quantities.

It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar termsare to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and aremerely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unlessspecifically stated otherwise as apparent from the above discussion, itis appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizingterms such as those set forth in the claims below, refer to the actionand processes of a computer system, or similar electronic computingdevice, that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical(electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers andmemories into other data similarly represented as physical quantitieswithin the computer system memories or registers or other suchinformation storage, transmission or display devices.

Embodiments of the invention also relate to an apparatus for performingthe operations herein. Such a computer program is stored in anon-transitory computer readable medium. A machine-readable mediumincludes any mechanism for storing information in a form readable by amachine (e.g., a computer). For example, a machine-readable (e.g.,computer-readable) medium includes a machine (e.g., a computer) readablestorage medium (e.g., read only memory (“ROM”), random access memory(“RAM”), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flashmemory devices).

The processes or methods depicted in the preceding figures may beperformed by processing logic that comprises hardware (e.g. circuitry,dedicated logic, etc.), software (e.g., embodied on a non-transitorycomputer readable medium), or a combination of both. Although theprocesses or methods are described above in terms of some sequentialoperations, it should be appreciated that some of the operationsdescribed may be performed in a different order. Moreover, someoperations may be performed in parallel rather than sequentially.

Embodiments of the present invention are not described with reference toany particular programming language. It will be appreciated that avariety of programming languages may be used to implement the teachingsof embodiments of the invention as described herein.

In the foregoing specification, embodiments of the invention have beendescribed with reference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. Itwill be evident that various modifications may be made thereto withoutdeparting from the broader spirit and scope of the invention as setforth in the following claims. The specification and drawings are,accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative sense rather than arestrictive sense.

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising: receiving, at a servicecenter, a request for posting a message from a mobile device over anetwork, the request identifying a first discussion forum and a seconddiscussion forum, the message pertaining to a product previouslyregistered with the service center by a user; transmitting to a firstserver hosting the first discussion forum over the network the messageand first credentials retrieved from a database associated with theservice center to allow the first discussion forum to authenticate theuser in order to post the message on the first discussion forum; andtransmitting to a second server hosting the second discussion forum overthe network the message and second credentials retrieved from thedatabase to allow the second discussion forum to authenticate the userin order to post the message on the second discussion forum, wherein themessage is posted without requiring the user to provide the first andthe second credentials at time of posting the message.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the first and second credentials were previouslyregistered with the service center by the user via the mobile device,such that the user does not have to provide the first and secondcredentials at the time of posting the message to the first and seconddiscussion forums.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:determining a product associated with the message based on the request,wherein the product was previously registered with the service center;posting the message in a first discussion thread of the first discussionforum that discusses the product; and posting the message in a seconddiscussion thread of the second discussion forum that discusses theproduct.
 4. The method of claim 3, further comprising: in response to afirst response to the message received from the first discussion forum,transmitting the first response to the mobile device over the network;and in response to a second response to the message received from thesecond discussion forum, transmitting the second response to the mobiledevice over the network, such that the user does not have toindividually access the first and second discussion forums to retrievethe first and second responses.
 5. The method of claim 3, wherein theproduct was registered by transmitting a machine readable code uniquelyidentifying the product from the mobile device to the service center,wherein the machine-readable code was obtained by scanning the productusing a scanner of the mobile device, and wherein the service center isconfigured to compile the detailed information of the product withoutspecifically providing detailed information of the product.
 6. Themethod of claim 3, further comprising: monitoring messages posted viathe service center in at least one of the first discussion thread andthe second discussion thread to generate discussion sentiment data; andtransmitting the discussion sentiment data to an agent to enable theagent to participate in at least one of the first and second discussionthreads to provide an answer to a question or a solution to a problemdiscussed therein.
 7. The method of claim 3, further comprisingestablishing a communications session between an agent and the userbased on at least one of the first and second responses to enable theagent to provide further support services to the registered product,wherein the communications session is established using a communicationschannel that is preferred by the user and is available to the agent. 8.The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a second requestfor selling the product from the mobile device, the second requestidentifying an eCommerce site and including a price for selling theproduct; in response to the second request, retrieving third credentialsfrom the database required by a third server that hosts the eCommercesite; and transmitting a sale request to the third server for sellingthe product, including the sale price and the third credentials forauthenticating the user of the mobile device, without requiring the userto provide the third credentials.
 9. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: receiving a third request to dispose the product from themobile device; and in response to the third request, arrange a disposalfacility to contact the user of the mobile device to recycle theproduct.
 10. A computer-readable storage medium having instructionsstored therein, which when executed by a computer, cause the computer toperform a method, the method comprising: receiving, at a service center,a request for posting a message from a mobile device over a network, therequest identifying a first discussion forum and a second discussionforum, the message pertaining to a product previously registered withthe service center by a user; transmitting to a first server hosting thefirst discussion forum over the network the message and firstcredentials retrieved from a database associated with the service centerto allow the first discussion forum to authenticate the user in order topost the message on the first discussion forum; and transmitting to asecond server hosting the second discussion forum over the network themessage and second credentials retrieved from the database to allow thesecond discussion forum to authenticate the user in order to post themessage on the second discussion forum, wherein the message is postedwithout requiring the user to provide the first and the secondcredentials at time of posting the message.
 11. The computer-readablestorage medium of claim 10, wherein the first and second credentialswere previously registered with the service center by the user via themobile device, such that the user does not have to provide the first andsecond credentials at the time of posting the message to the first andsecond discussion forums.
 12. The computer-readable storage medium ofclaim 10, wherein the method further comprises: determining a productassociated with the message based on the request, wherein the productwas previously registered with the service center; posting the messagein a first discussion thread of the first discussion forum thatdiscusses the product; and posting the message in a second discussionthread of the second discussion forum that discusses the product. 13.The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the methodfurther comprises: in response to a first response to the messagereceived from the first discussion forum, transmitting the firstresponse to the mobile device over the network; and in response to asecond response to the message received from the second discussionforum, transmitting the second response to the mobile device over thenetwork, such that the user does not have to individually access thefirst and second discussion forums to retrieve the first and secondresponses.
 14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, whereinthe product was registered by transmitting a machine readable codeuniquely identifying the product from the mobile device to the servicecenter, wherein the machine-readable code was obtained by scanning theproduct using a scanner of the mobile device, and wherein the servicecenter is configured to compile the detailed information of the productwithout specifically providing detailed information of the product. 15.The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the methodfurther comprises: monitoring messages posted via the service center inat least one of the first discussion thread and the second discussionthread to generate discussion sentiment data; and transmitting thediscussion sentiment data to an agent to enable the agent to participatein at least one of the first and second discussion threads to provide ananswer to a question or a solution to a problem discussed therein. 16.The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the methodfurther comprises establishing a communications session between an agentand the user based on at least one of the first and second responses toenable the agent to provide further support services to the registeredproduct, wherein the communications session is established using acommunications channel that is preferred by the user and is available tothe agent.
 17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, whereinthe method further comprises: receiving a second request for selling theproduct from the mobile device, the second request identifying aneCommerce site and including a price for selling the product; inresponse to the second request, retrieving third credentials from thedatabase required by a third server that hosts the eCommerce site; andtransmitting a sale request to the third server for selling the product,including the sale price and the third credentials for authenticatingthe user of the mobile device, without requiring the user to provide thethird credentials.
 18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10,wherein the method further comprises: receiving a third request todispose the product from the mobile device; and in response to the thirdrequest, arrange a disposal facility to contact the user of the mobiledevice to recycle the product.
 19. A computer-implemented method,comprising: receiving, at a service center, a first request from amobile device requesting a support service, the first requestidentifying a product previously registered with the service center;establishing a communications session between a user of the mobiledevice and an agent using a communications channel that is preferred bythe user and is available to the agent to allow the agent to provide thesupport service to the product, wherein the communications channel isone of a plurality of communications channels that have been previouslyregistered with the service center by the user and stored in a database;receiving, at a service center, a message associated with the productfrom a vendor providing the product, the message identifying at leastone of a promotion, a reward, a suggestion of an accessory, and a recallof the product; accessing a set of one or more rules associated with theproduct to determine whether the message associated with the productshould be routed to the user; and transmitting the message to the mobiledevice if the one or more rules are configured to allow the message tobe routed to the user.
 20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:receiving, at the service center, a second request from the mobiledevice for selling the product, the second request identifying a serverthat hosts a sales platform; retrieving from the database credentialsassociated with the server, wherein the credentials have been previouslyregistered with the service center; and transmitting a sales request tothe server for selling the product, together with the credentials toallow the server to authenticate the user, without having to prompt theuser for the credentials.
 21. The method of claim 19, wherein theproduct was registered by receiving a machine-readable code from themobile device, the machine-readable code uniquely identifying theproduct, wherein the machine-readable code was obtained by scanning theproduct using a scanner of the mobile device, and wherein based on themachine-readable code, the service center is configured to compiledetailed information of the product without requiring a user of themobile device to provide the detailed information.
 22. Acomputer-implemented method, comprising: receiving, at a service center,a first request from a mobile device requesting a support service, thefirst request identifying a product previously registered with theservice center; establishing a communications session between a user ofthe mobile device and an agent using a communications channel that ispreferred by the user and is available to the agent to allow the agentto provide the support service to the product, wherein thecommunications channel is one of a plurality of communications channelsthat have been previously registered with the service center by the userand stored in a database; receiving, at the service center, a secondrequest from the mobile device for selling the product, the secondrequest identifying a server that hosts a sales platform; retrievingfrom the database credentials associated with the server, wherein thecredentials have been previously registered with the service center; andtransmitting a sales request to the server for selling the product,together with the credentials to allow the server to authenticate theuser, without having to prompt the user for the credentials.